1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus, a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method, and an information providing medium and, more particularly, to a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus, a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method, and an information providing medium that display a request message for requesting predetermined data input and a status message indicating a communication state for example in an area on which a user using a three-dimensional virtual reality space always focuses attention.
2. Description of Related Art
A cyberspace service named Habitat (trademark) is known in the so-called personal computer communications services such as NIFTY-Serve (trademark) of Japan and CompuServe (trademark) of US in which a plurality of users connect their personal computers via modems and public telephone network to the host computers installed at the centers of the services to access them in predetermined protocols. Development of Habitat started in 1985 by Lucas Film of the US, operated by Quantum Link, one of US commercial networks, for about three years. Then, Habitat started its service in NIFTY-Serve as Fujitsu Habitat (trademark) in February 1990. In Habitat, users can send their alter egos called avatars (the incarnation of a god figuring in the Hindu mythology) into a virtual city called Populopolis drawn by two-dimensional graphics to have a chat (namely, a realtime conversation based on text entered and displayed) with each other. For further details of Habitat, refer to the Japanese translation of xe2x80x9cCyberspace: First Steps,xe2x80x9d Michael Benedikt, ed., 1991, MIT Press Cambridge, Mass., ISBNO-262-02327-X, the translation being published Mar. 20, 1994, by NTT Publishing, ISBN4-87188-265-9C0010, pp. 282-307.
In order to implement the above-mentioned cyberspace system by use of the infrastructure of the Internet through which information can be transferred all over the world, standardization of a three-dimensional graphics description language called VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is proceeding.
In WWW (World Wide Web);of the Internet, document data can be described in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and the resultant HTML file can be stored in a WWW server. This HTML file can be transferred on demand by a client terminal and can be displayed by use of the HTML browser of that client terminal.
Like this HTML file, three-dimensional graphics data can be described in VRML and the resultant VRML file can be stored in a WWW server. This VRML file can be transferred on demand by a client terminal and can be displayed by use of the VRML browser of that client terminal.
When displaying a request message for requesting necessary data input and a status message indicating a communication state to a user using (mainly looking at) a three-dimensional virtual reality space by use of the above-mentioned VRML browser for example, these message are ordinarily displayed in a display area dedicated to message display on a display screen.
For example, FIG. 32 shows a display screen of a dedicated viewer software for use in a chat service called Worlds Chat(trademark) developed by Worlds Inc. of the US and made commercially available in April 1995. This Worlds Chat supports chat in a three-dimensional virtual reality. space based on the company""s own standard, allowing a user to freely move in a virtual space of a fictitious space station to chat realtime in the form of text with another user in the space station. FIG. 36 shows an example of display in Whisper mode for chat, in which a request message indicating a necessary data input request such as an operation guide to a user is displayed in a message window 151 separate from a main window 150.
However, the user normally always focuses attention on the main widow 150 in which a virtual reality space is displayed, so that it is difficult for the user to move his or her sight line to a message displayed in the message window 151. Consequently, the above-mentioned ordinary constitution may not effectively notify the user of messages such as an operation guide useful to the user.
Moreover, the message display requires to display the message window 151, thereby occupying the display screen by that amount and a virtual reality space and other useful information displayed in,the main window 150 may be hidden behind the message window.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to display messages useful for a user by effective use of a minimum occupation area while prompting the user to focus attention to the message display.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there are provided a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus described in claim 1, a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method described in claim 8, and an information providing medium described in claim 9 that, when decoding three-dimensional graphics data to display a corresponding three-dimensional virtual reality space image onto the display screen of a display device, acquire a message associated with the three-dimensional virtual reality space image to be displayed on the display screen and display the acquired message onto a preset area of the three-dimensional virtual reality space image in an overlay manner.
The above-mentioned novel constitution allows, by effective use of a minimum occupation area, displaying of messages useful for the user who wants to use a three-dimensional virtual reality space while prompting the user to focus attention to the display.
It should be noted that the information providing medium herein denotes not only package media such as a floppy disk and a CD-ROM in which computer programs are stored but also a transmission medium by which a computer program is downloaded via a network such as the Internet for example.
In the following description, an object xe2x80x9cavatarxe2x80x9d representing user""s alter ego can move around inside a virtual reality space, enter in and walk off it. The avatar can change (or update) its states inside a virtual reality space. Therefore, such an object is hereafter referred to as an update object appropriately. On the other hand, an object representative of a building constituting a town in the virtual reality space is used commonly by a plurality of users and does not change in its basic state. Even if the building object changes, it changes autonomously, namely it changes independent of the operations made at client terminals. Such an object commonly used by a plurality of users is appropriately called a basic object hereafter.